ciate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, and Maj. John Biddle Porter, Judge-Advocate Department, United States Army, to assist me in this way, and with Your Holiness's permission I now present them. "(Signed) WM. H. TAFT."

Secretary Root handed Governor Taft full instruction as to the nature of the questions to be resolved, if possible, in his conference with such Church authorities as might be proved to have power to contract with government for the desired purchase of the lands. I give these instructions in full though all do not bear directly upon the matter in hand.

"WAR DEPARTMENT,
"Washington, May 9, 1902.

"SIR, It is now apparent that Congress will not have acted upon the Philippine Commission's recommendations regarding the purchase of friar lands before the time of your departure for Manila, which can not be longer delayed. You can not, therefore, as we had hoped, now receive definite instructions and proceed to take such steps, in the execution of specific authority from Congress, as should properly be taken before you return to Manila. The committees of both Houses have, however, reported favorably upon the Commission's recommendations, and it appears probable that Congress will confirm their actions. In view, therefore, of the critical situation of this subject in the Philippines, and of the apparent impossibility of disposing of the matter there by negotiation with the friars themselves, the President does not feel at liberty to lose the opportunity for effective action afforded by your presence in the West. He wishes you to take the subject up tentatively with the ecclesiastical superiors who must ultimately determine the friars' course of conduct, and endeavor to reach at least a basis of negotiations along lines which will be satisfactory to them and to the Philippine government, accompanied by a full understanding on both sides of the facts and the views and purposes of the parties to the negotiations; so that when Congress

shall have acted the business may proceed to a conclusion without delay. You are accordingly authorized, in the course of your return journey to Manila, to visit Rome, and there ascertain what Church authorities have the power to negotiate for and determine upon a sale of the lands of the religious orders in the Philippine Islands, and if you find, as we are informed, that the officers of the Church at Rome have such power and authority, you will endeavor to attain the results above indicated. Any negotiations which you may enter upon are always subject to granting of power by Congress to follow the negotiations by binding action. In any conferences and negotiations, you will bear in mind the following propositions, which are deemed fundamental, and which should be fully and frankly stated to the other side in the negotiations:

"(1) One of the controlling principles of our government is the complete separation of Church and State, with entire freedom of each from any control or interference by the other. This principle is imperative wherever American jurisdiction extends, and no modification or shading thereof can be subject of discussion.

“(2) It is necessary now to deal with the results of establishing a government controlled by this principle in the Philippine Islands, which have for centuries been governed under an entirely different system, with Church and State closely united, and having functions of the one exercised by agents of the other; where the Church has long controlled and acted virtually as the agent of the State in the field of public instruction and public charities, and has from time to time acquired large properties held by it, or by its subordinate corporations or officers, for these public uses. A novel situation has been created, under which the adjustment of means to ends appropriate to the former system entirely fails to produce the intended result under the new system, and the separation of Church and State requires to be followed by a readjustment and rearrangement in the interests both of Church and of State, and for the attainment of the great ends of civil government, of education, of charity, and of religion.

"(3) By reason of the separation, the religious orders,

Dominicans, Augustinians, Recolletos, and Franciscans, can no longer perform in behalf of the State the duties. in relation to public instruction and public charities formerly resting upon them, and the power which they formerly exercised, through their relations to the civil government, being now withdrawn, they find themselves the objects of such hostility on the part of their tenantry against them as landlords, and on the part of the people of the parishes against them as representatives of the former government, that they are no longer capable of serving any useful purpose for the Church. No rents can be collected from the populous communities occupying their lands unless it be by the intervention of the civil government with armed force. Speaking generally, several years past the friars of these four orders, formerly installed over the parishes, have been unable to remain at their posts, and are collected in Manila with the vain hope of returning. They will not voluntarily be accepted again by the people, and can not be restored to their positions except by forcible intervention on the part of the civil government, which the principles of our government forbid.

"It is manifest that, under these conditions, it is for the interest of the Church, as well as of the State, that the landed proprietorship of the religious orders in the Philippine Islands should cease, and that if the Church wishes, as of course it does wish, to continue its ministration among the people of the Islands, and to conduct in its own behalf a system of instruction in the parishes, with which we have no desire to interfere, it should seek other agents therefor.

"(4) It is the wish of our government, in case Congress shall grant authority, that the titles of the religious orders to the large tracts of agricultural lands which they now hold shall. be extinguished, but that full and fair compensation shall be made therefor.

(5) It is not, however. deemed to be for the interests of the people of the Philippine Islands that, in thus transforming wholly unproductive tracts of land into money capable of productive investment, a fund should thereby

be created to be used for the attempted restoration of the friars to the parishes from which they are now separated.

"(6) The titles to the great amount of Church lands and buildings in the Islands, other than those of the religious orders, and now apparently owned by the State, should be settled fairly.

"(7) Provision should be made for ascertaining what rentals, if any, ought to be paid for conventos and other church buildings which have been occupied by United States troops during the insurrection, this being, of course, subject to further specific action by Congress.

"(8) The rights and obligations remaining under the various specific trusts for education and charity, which are now in doubt and controversy, ought to be settled by agreement, if possible, rather than by the slow and frequently disastrous processes of litigation, so that the beneficent purposes of these foundations may not fail.

"(9) Your errand will not be in any sense or degree diplomatic in its nature, but will be purely a business. matter of negotiation by you as governor of the Philippines for the purchase of property from the owners thereof, and the settlement of land titles, in such a manner as to contribute to the best interests of the people of the Islands.

"Any assistance which you may desire, whether on the part of officers of the civil government or of military officers, to cnable you to perform the duties above described in a manner satisfactory to yourself will be afforded; but the business is left entirely in your hands, subject to such action as may be taken pursuant to law upon your report. Verv Respectfully, "(Signed) ELIHU ROOT, "Secretary of War.

"HON. WILLIAM H. TAFT.

"Civil Governor of the Philippine Islands,

"Washington, D. C.”

CHAPTER XVII.

THE FRIAR LANDS. (Continued.)

THE Address of Governor Taft and the Instructions of Secretary Root were pondered deeply before a reply was made to their straightforward statements of fact and declarations of purpose. In the experience of the Vatican it is not likely that documents so plain-even to the point of brusqueness-had been submitted for consideration. In this correspondence there was no discourtesy, but a coming directly to the matter in hand characteristic of the American mind. It must have been something of a shock to the pope to be plainly told that the friars could no longer serve either the Church or the State because of their unacceptability with the people. The open disavowal of any diplomatic character in the errand of Governor Taft, and its reduction to the level of a proposed real estate transaction between alleged owners and a possible buyer, must have sorely hurt the papal hopes. The proposal that other agents than the friars should be furnished for the Philippine curacies must have roused discussions whose heat strikes up through the otherwise cold document. An altogether dispassionate student of the steps our government had taken up to this point in the negotiations could hardly say that our agents had handled Rome with gloves. Governor Taft's opening remarks were complimentary to the personal record of the pope. That was to be expected. When contrasted with the dark impurities and even